Kesha Drops ‘Acid,’ ‘Fine Line’ Cuts From New LP ‘Gag Order’: Stream

Almost a decade has passed since Kesha unlocked the next level to pop stardom with “Tik Tok.” It feels more like several lifetimes, during which the pop artist has dabbled in reality TV, reshaped her sound, style, image, and gone through the wringer with a high-profile court case.

Now, she’s entering her next musical phase with the album Gag Order, set to drop May 19 via Kemosabe/RCA Records, which her reps say excavates “the deepest recesses of her soul to date.”

But first, the lead tracks from it, “Eat the Acid” and “Fine Line,” which arrived at the stroke of midnight, and are accompanied with the dark album artwork that depicts Kesha’s head in a plastic bag — a literal visualization to its “gag order” title.

“Fine Line,” an introspective ballad, and “Eat the Acid,” an experimental pop number, are notable for the absence of drums or a beat of any kind.

Rick Rubin produced the forthcoming album, which Kesha and her team describe as a “post-pop” “emotional exorcism” on which she finds empowerment in baptism-by-fire self-discovery and acceptance.

“Without the darkness there is no light. So I let my darkness have the light. I can’t fight the truth. Life is difficult and painful. It is for everyone,” she writes in an album manifesto. “An artist doesn’t exist to make others happy. I believe an artist gives voice, motion, color to the emotions we all have. The good emotions, and the unmanageably fucking miserable ones.”

Kesha has notably been in a legal battle with Dr. Luke since 2014, when the producer and Kemosabe Records founder filed a defamation suit against her for claiming that he drugged and raped her in 2005. Just a few months ago, a New York judge scheduled a new trial start date — July 19 — for the case after key issues made its prior February start date unworkable.

Kesha is credited as executive producer on Gag Order, her fifth solo studio album and the followup to 2020’s High Road, which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Stream “Fine Line” and “Eat the Acid” below.